


Two Glowing Boys in a Cage

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2018 [9]
Category: Danny Phantom, Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Humor, imprisoned, pre-season 3, pre-season 3 (trollhunters), trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 22:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17232287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: When both Danny and Jim get themselves locked up together, it's up to their best-friends to rescue them.





	Two Glowing Boys in a Cage

 

For some reason, Danny was a lot more calm than the other glowing kid in the cage. Of course, if the other guy wasn't used to being kidnapped by a crazy ringmaster and imprisoned with a ghost kid, it would make sense to be a little freaked out by the situation.

The armored boy was currently trying to cut through the bars of their confinement, but to little avail. On the surface he seemed both frustrated and worried, which was the polar opposite of Danny's current composure. To tell the truth, it was a little pitiful how easily he had accepted being thrown in a cage by one of his enemies.

“I _have_ to find a way out of here,” the other guy said, pacing through their limited space, holding his two knive-things close to his side. The luminescence of his armor competed with Danny's natural ghostly glow for dominance.

“Well,” Danny said, leaning against his side of the cage, “strategy wise, we're kinda limited at the moment. Our only option is to wait for an opening, or for rescue.”

The other guy stopped pacing, and looked back at Danny. His eyes examined him imploringly, as if he was trying to piece together how Danny fit into the situation. Finally, he gave a resigned sigh and sat down across from Danny.

“Do this a lot?” He posed the question casually, as if they were sitting in a coffee shop rather than in a metal cage suspended from the ceiling.

Danny nodded, a ghost a smirk on his lips, “Unfortunately.”

The other guy fidgeted with his curved daggers, before eventually deciding to put them away by letting them simply dissipate into the air. He struggled for a moment, unsure of what to say before he took the plunge.

“So... who are you again? And not to be rude, but _what_ are you?”

Danny gave an innoxious shrug, making it clear he found no offense in the other boy's question. “Well, I thought Freakshow made it clear, but I'm a ghost. Danny Phantom,” he introduced. “And you? What's your story? You look like a normal kid, so how'd you end up with that magic armor?”

Danny expected the kid to have some reaction when he said he was a ghost, but instead, the other boy took it in stride – or at least he didn't let his surprise show on the surface. “I'm well... Jim Lake. I'm the Trollhunter.”

Danny zoned out before reigning himself back into reality. “I'm sorry, the what?” he raised an eyebrow. “What kind of superhero name is that?”

Jim laughed a little. “Actually, it's less of a name, and more of a title,” he explained. “The Trollhunter is someone who is chosen by this amulet,” he gestured to a glowing sundial embedded in his armor, sitting directly above his heart, “to protect the world from evil trolls. And I'm not really a superhero... no one besides my friends knows about what I do, so I can't really be considered one. I'm more of a guy who just saves the world from the shadows....”

Danny's eyes bulged, “Wait, so you're saying there's such thing as _trolls_?”

Jim nodded. “Yeah, and more than that. I mean, I've also fought gnomes, goblins, a stalkling, a gruesome, pixies – oh, and changelings.”

“Well,” Danny muttered, subconsciously running his fingers through his snowy hair, “I think I've met my daily limit of having my mind implode.”

Neither of them really knew what to say next, so Jim decidedly glanced back at Danny. “So if you're a ghost... why can't you just go through the bars or something? You can do that right, go through things?”

Danny shrugged, “Normally, yeah. But these are ghost proof bars. I can't phase through them.”

“I think they may be magic proof too...” Jim speculated. “That would explain why Claire hasn't found me with her Shadow Staff yet.”

“Claire?” Danny asked.

“She's my friend... well, maybe girlfriend, I don't know. Besides the point, she has this dark magic staff that can create portals anywhere. She should've been able to find me a while ago... but....” he sighed. “This isn't looking too good. This was just supposed to be a simple job and now I'm halfway across the country imprisoned by some nutjob who decided to steal from Trollmarket.”

“It could be worse,” Danny offered.

Jim gave him an incredulous look, “How?”

“Last time I encountered Freakshow, he stole a gauntlet that could control reality, revealed my secret identity on live TV, locked my family up for three days, and I had to go on the run from the government. Now _that_ sucked. Thankfully, I reversed everything with the gauntlet before destroying it. That's not even taking my first encounter with Freakshow into account either....” Danny shuddered at the memory of when Freakshow had brainwashed him and made him commit heinous crimes, almost irreversibly tarnishing his hero reputation. The scariest part hadn't been that he was unaware of his actions, but the fact that Freakshow had somehow made him _enjoy_ it.

“Oh...” Jim said, “ _Wow_. I mean, I got a call from one of my troll friends that there was a human in Trollmarket – which is this underground troll city – and when I showed up, he had frozen half of the citizens with the Adhibere Algus, which is an artifact that can freeze anything for up to three hours. I went after him, but I ended up fighting with him in the gyre and before I knew it, I'm in freaking Illinois. But that's not even half as bad....”

“Yeah. Whatever Freakshow's planning... it can't be good,” Danny said. “I got here this time because I sensed his ghost servant, Lydia. He clearly knew I was coming because he shocked me from behind and threw me in here.” He pulled his knees to his chest. “I really hope Sam and Tucker notice I'm gone and look for me this time.”

“Are they other ghosts?” Jim asked.

“Huh?” Danny asked. “Oh, no. They're some human friends I have. Bestfriends. They usually help me out whenever I get into situations like this, which is a lot more than it should be.” He said the last part more quietly, but Jim picked up on it anyway.

“And _why_ do you usually get into situations like this?” he questioned.“I mean, what are you doing with your afterlife that makes this a typical situation?”

Danny bit his lip. “You said you're not from around here, right?”

“Yeah,” Jim confirmed. “I live back in California, a town called Arcadia Oaks.”

“Well, here in Amity Park, there's a bunch of ghost attacks. We're officially the most haunted city in the country, but the government either thinks we're a complete joke, or deliberately covers everything up. But... I'm the one who fights off most of the other ghosts. I've made it my job to keep them inside the Ghost Zone, were they can't hurt anybody or plot world domination.” He paused, “And sometimes, I have to make sure psychos like Freakshow don't become ruler of reality.”

“So you have it about as hard as me,” Jim realized.

Danny grinned, “Since you're the 'Trollhunter', I guess you could call me the 'Ghosthunter'.... Wait, never mind, that title already belongs to Skulker. I don't like the ring to it anyway. Danny Phantom is ten times more witty.”

Both of the boys genuinely laughed, temporarily forgetting the circumstances of their imprisonment and recognizing the other as someone who could truly understand the difficulty of a hero's devotion.

* * *

 

“I don't understand, TP,” Claire said. “I'm trying to use Jim as my emotional anchor, but it's like he fell off the face of the world – I can't find him!”

“Well, that's why we had to follow him to the gyre's last destination,” Toby said, following Claire out of the shadowy maintenance tunnel. “If he's anywhere, it's probably here.”

“But why would Jim come to Illinois?” Claire deadpanned.

“Blinky said he was following a thief. Maybe the thief came here, so he had to follow him,” Toby suggested. The two of them were now walking along a vacant urban street in the dim light of dusk, reminding them of the two-hour time zone shift from California.

“I don't know,” Claire said, warily eyeing the abandoned city block. “Something just feels... off to me.”

Up until then, neither Claire nor Toby had noticed any other occupants within the area, until a dark-haired girl in goth apparel clutched Claire's shoulder from behind and forced her to turn around. For a moment the two girls stared at each other. Claire wore a profound look of confusion while the goth girl seemed to search her face for some sort of recognition.

“Not overshadowed...” the girl muttered under her breath, glancing back at Toby before returning to Claire, and finally releasing her grip from her shoulder. Claire, recovering from her momentary disarray, noticed that in her other hand, the girl grasped a chunky, silver and green, block of tech that looked like some sort GPS tracker.

Suddenly, from behind the strange new girl, an out of breath black boy sporting a red beret approached.

“Sam... you... run too... fast,” the boy panted, stopping next to the mysterious girl.

The girl growled in apparent agitation, “Well, I'm not just going to stand around when Danny's gone and the Fenton Finder brings us to some random chick on the street instead of our _missing_ best friend. I thought maybe, if she was overshadowed, we might have a better chance of finding him, but instead it looks like we're back at square one!”

“I'm sorry, what are you talking about?” Claire interjected.

“None of your business,” Sam spat.

“Well clearly it _is_ ,” Claire put a hand on her hip.

“You're just some tourist,” Sam rolled her eyes. “I don't owe you any explanation. Now, come on Tucker. We have to go find Danny.”

“Shouldn't we at least figure out _why_ the Finder let us here?” Tucker said. “I mean, there's no way it's malfunctioning. Mrs. Fenton's inventions are usually flawless, whether she knows it or not.”

“I am _so_ lost,” Toby declared.

Sam groaned in frustration, “ _Fine_. I'll ask, since you insist, o'wise technogeek.” She addressed Claire and Toby, “This,” she began, pointing to the tracker in her hands, “is the Fenton Finder. It tracks ghosts. Can either of you tell me why it could be tracking you?”

“Ghosts?” Toby questioned.

“ _Yes_ , ghosts,” Sam said, exasperatedly. “You're only in the most haunted city in America for crying out loud! Now, answer.”

“We don't know why your stupid tracker is pointing towards us,” Claire defended. “The only thing I have with me is my Shadow... _oh_. That might be it.”

“Why would a magic staff show up on a ghost tracker?” Toby asked.

“How am I supposed to know? I don't even know what this thing is _made_ of, other than dark magic,” Claire hissed.

“Dark magic?” Tucker furrowed his brow. “Do you buy it, Sam?”

“Maybe,” the girl confessed. “If it's actual magic, which I don't doubt exists, seeing as the Ghost Zone is real, then the Finder may not be able to differentiate the frequencies of magic and ecto-signatures very well. It would make sense.”

“I'm still skeptical,” Tucker said.

“So, what kind of dark magic are you hiding?” Sam turned towards Claire again.

“Uh... well – I-” the girl stammered. “People usually don't believe in magic. Or anything out of the ordinary.”

“People are different here,” Sam explained.

Claire looked hesitant to divulge the information, so Toby took the lead. “She has a staff that can teleport us anywhere.”

“Wicked,” Sam grinned.

“Hey,” Tucker said, “maybe that can take us to Danny!”

“Who's Danny?” Toby asked. “You said he was missing.”

“He's our friend. He... probably got into trouble with someone bad, so we're looking for him,” Sam stated.

“Well, if you don't know where he is,” Claire said, “it won't be much use. That's why we're here, one of our friends went missing too, but we can't find him. Normally I could teleport to him, because I know him, but for some reason I'm unable to reach him.”

“Well, that sucks,” Tucker frowned. “If you don't mind me asking, how did your friend go missing? Because sometimes there's a chance that they might be together.”

“I doubt it, Tucker,” Sam said. “After all, they're not from Amity.”

“Well, he was supposedly chasing after this thief,” Toby supplied.

“Hmm,” Sam said, in thought. “What'd this thief look like?”

“We didn't see him,” Toby said, remembering Blinky's description of the man, “but he had almost gray skin, and had this black and red coat and top-hat.”

“Wait a minute...” Tucker said, slowly, “that sounds like-”

“ _Freakshow_.” Sam's eyes darkened with a murderous gleam.

“If he's involved, Danny's definitely involved too!” Tucker declared. “That means Danny _is_ with your friend!”

“So Jim is with your guys' friend, Danny?” Claire asked. “Are you _sure_?”

“If what you told us is true, then almost certainly,” Sam confirmed.

“So...” Toby started, “do you guys want to team up to find them both?”

Tucker nodded, “That's probably the best decision at this point.”

As the sun sank in the sky with a finality for the night, the four allies walked together, trading information and aligning strategies on how to save their 'heroes' from the clutches of Freakshow.

 

 

 


End file.
